Luxuries

Is anyone else feeling like we spend too much money on things we don’t even need?
We have to renew our cell phones soon and this has caused me to look at how much we’ve been spending on our current cell phone plan. Have you ever added up how much you spend on your cell phone plan in a year? How about TV? Internet? When added up yearly, it’s a big number.
For us, all three of those combined equal $1620 a year.
These are all luxuries that I know I didn’t grow up with. Somehow these have all become normal expenses now. How did that happen? Isn’t technology supposed to make our lives easier?
Why does it seem to make it more complicated and expensive?
I have friends who choose not to have cell phones and some who choose to use “rabbit ears.” (at least before the new regulations.)
But, for the most part, we just see these as expenses that are fixed on our budget sheet.
My suggestion isn’t that we cancel all these items but rather that we take a look at those bills and see if we need every option that we are paying for. Do we need all 3 million channels or can we get by with 1 million? Do we need the fastest internet connection possible, or can we stand to wait for a couple of seconds?
Do we need all those minutes and texting on our cell phones? We might use them currently, but do we actually need them?
Do you know what I got my first cell phone for? Emergencies.
That’s a joke- I don’t think most of my calls and texts have been about an emergency. Can we scale back on the options on our phones? Seriously, do we need to have caller ID? What happens if we don’t know who’s calling us? (I believe this is how most of us lived most of our lives – when the phone rang, we had no clue who it would be on the other end.) How about call waiting? Can someone not just leave a message and we’ll call them back, if we happen to be on the other line?
Is anyone else tired of paying for all these items that have become commonplace in our society?
I know I am guilty of paying for a lot of luxuries I certainly don’t need.
I think we’ve lost sight on what we “need” and what we “want.”